Very late game rogue -- Any advice?

[krazyhades]

As I see it, the point is that he WILL do it eventually (especially if you have two or more immunities from a ring of power), and once he does, there's no room for any harmful summons to stand, so you can just stand there hitting M and quaffing.

[hyperdex]

Just tried taking on Morgoth again. This time I got him down to 4 stars before I had to bail. I used 9 non-replenishable Healings, so back to the grind for me...

I have switched in a Caestus of Power (+4, +8) <+4> so that is helping my damage output. After thinking it over, I really doubt I am going to find a better weapon than my bastard sword. In order to match its power against Morgoth with a non artifact Slay Evil weapon, I would need a +21 Mace of Disruption, a +26 Scythe of Slicing, or a +30 Blade of Chaos. These may exist, but they are almost certainly hard to find. I am better off looking for a large damage dice artifact with slay evil and extra attacks. This assumes that the best slay evil we can get is x2. Looking over the source code, I believe that to be the case.

[hyperdex]

Also, I just uploaded my most recent char dump to the ladder. Is there a way to link to it from here?

[krazyhades]

Yeah, here's the link to hyperdex's character dump

[Timo Pietilä]

After thinking it over, I really doubt I am going to find a better weapon than my bastard sword. In order to match its power against Morgoth with a non artifact Slay Evil weapon, I would need a +21 Mace of Disruption, a +26 Scythe of Slicing, or a +30 Blade of Chaos.

HA MoD would be nice. Or two extra blows with high bonus. MoD is heavy, so you would get quite a few massive critical hits.

Your weapon is great, so you don't *need* better weapon, but those do exist. Just keep eye on big three.

OTOH with 7 blows all off-weapon bonuses mean more than with 5 blows, so increase your damage. That Caestus of Power (+4, +8) <+4> is great find.

[LostTemplar]

Shoot him with some wands of annihilation or holy might arrows in empty area, using create doors + cheap heals (ccw). Teleport him away from melee range.

[Timo Pietilä]

Shoot him with some wands of annihilation or holy might arrows in empty area, using create doors + cheap heals (ccw). Teleport him away from melee range.

In melee-range rune of protection helps quite a lot. M will destroy that quite fast, but not immediately unless you are unlucky, and even few extra turns in melee helps quite a lot.

With priest I use that a lot, but OTOH it's cheap spell for priest.

[hyperdex]

Possible change in strategy...

I just found the following while looking for Healing sources...

u) the Heavy Crossbow 'Caldolor' (x7) (+13,+29) <+3>
     Dropped by a Barbazu at 4900 feet (level 98).
     
     +3 strength, dexterity, shooting power.
     Provides immunity to fire.
     Provides resistance to acid, cold, dark, sound.
     Provides protection from fear, confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Sustains strength.
     Sustains your life force.  Grants telepathy.  
     
     When activated, it restores your mana points to maximum.
     Takes 492 to 720 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.5%

This, together with the bolts of Holy Might suggestion of LostTemplar might be a more effective way of weakening Morgoth while staying out of melee range. Of course I lose 100HP when I wield this, but if I am not meleeing, it's not so bad...

On that note, how does missile damage work? I imagine that the (7x) on this bow is quite good, but how does that calculation work? Suppose I use this bow to fire a normal Seeker Bolt (4d5). How much damage will it do per hit? Does my damage ring affect this? How do slays figure into it?

[Monkey Face]

On that note, how does missile damage work? I imagine that the (7x) on this bow is quite good, but how does that calculation work? Suppose I use this bow to fire a normal Seeker Bolt (4d5). How much damage will it do per hit? Does my damage ring affect this? How do slays figure into it?

7x is a really good multiplier. An average light Xbow is 3x and an average heavy Xbow is 4x.

The easiest way to see your damage is to wield both the Xbow and seeker bolt and then examine the bolt. It will show you the average damage per hit.

I don't believe your damage ring will affect missile launching. I'm not sure how the slays on the bolts affect the damage but examining the wielded bolt should give you an idea.

[Nick]

On that note, how does missile damage work? I imagine that the (7x) on this bow is quite good, but how does that calculation work? Suppose I use this bow to fire a normal Seeker Bolt (4d5). How much damage will it do per hit? Does my damage ring affect this? How do slays figure into it?

Basically it's damage from dice, + to-dam (from missile and launcher), times multiplier (which is added to by any slay/brand).
So in your case, a plain seeker bolt will do on average 10, +29 for your killing machine's to-dam, times seven for about 270 damage. If you have bolts of Holy Might which are (say) +6 to dam, you will get +2 to multiplier for Slay Evil and it will be ~45x9 = ~400 per shot. If, like this character, you have Holy Might bolts with +25 to-dam, then it's about 575 damage per shot. This ignores criticals.

In summary, that bow would be well worth losing 100 HP for even if it did not provide fire immunity, +3 STR and DEX, RAcid, RCold, RDark, RSound, pFear, pConf, hold life and telepathy.

[Estie]

That Xbow is a monster. Its your best weapon by far, and dont bother with "weakening" only, do all the killing with it. Wield a weapon for constitution if you are worried (any westernesse for example; dont worry about your melee damage at this point). You want bolts of slay evil; holy might ones are better because of higher enchantment, but not necessary.

I am curious what that xbow is based on; once you are done with this character, could you check ? (@-s-b after retirement or death). My guess is its either Ringil or Feanor.

[hyperdex]

Ouch. I f--ed up. I was just looking for potions and not paying particular attention to my HP when I got surrounded by undead and did not react properly.

On the other hand I did save scum (boo - hiss) so I am now going to use this character to test various strategies for taking on Morgoth. I won't post here any more since he did die.

To Estie -- I am not sure how to get the artifact information you want... Is it at the tombstone screen? I tried hitting '@' at that screen and the screen did not change at all. I will post that info once I have it.

[Estie]

Sorry for the loss, that was an excellent character.

My bad for being unclear - the @ I posted is the last step of confirming quitting and shouldnt be there.

Yes, from the tombstone screen, s for spoilers, then b for artifact info, that creates a file artifact.spo in /lib/user.

[hyperdex]

Thanks Estie. The crossbow was indeed based on Ringil. My bastard sword was based on Aule.

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Had I not been a complete idiot, I am fairly confident I could have taken Morgoth. I had managed to damage him quite a bit in two forays to level 100, and with sufficient healing he would have fallen. Or so I tell myself.

On to the drawing board...

Dave